Method of assorting silks.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 3, 1905. Serial No. 244,064:-

To all. whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HANS HOFER, of the Republic of Switzerland, residing in New York, county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Assortin'g Silks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has for its object to make certain raw silks, such as China Tsatlee filatures or China native filatures, available generall for industrial purposesthat is to say, for the manufacture of broad silk goods, narrow-ware goods, &c.as Well as for embroidery andsewing purposes. The great bulk of, the China raw silks being prepared by the natives according to crude and primitive methods cannot be used for Weaving urposes, or, indeed, any other purposes W ere regularity in size is essential not only with respect to the ultimate quality of'the product, but with respect to the operation of the machinery employed in developing it. Such silks are almost exclusively used only for sewing and embroidery, the silks employed in Weaving and other arts where uniformity is essential being those which are produced and prepared in and according to the modern methods of Europe and J apan. The crude native method of preparing Chinasilks results in such diversities of gage or thickness of filaments that in one bale of silk/the size often varies from fifteen to fifty andmore deniers'in single-filament silk, and such irregularity becomes all the more apparent if the two extremes of size happen to join, as is often the case My invention is a method of assorting silks of materially-diversified sizes which consists in Weighing the'silk in the filament and in comparatively short lengths at a time, then dividing it into separatelots each comprising lengths of filament having approximately the same weight, and then joining those lengths of filaments having approximately the. same weight together to make a single thread thereof. -Theresult is that'in each lot the different filaments will be found to be approximately for all practical purposes of the same number of sizes, (deniers,) which are thus merchantable as of a uniform size for use gener' ally in the manufacture of silk goods of what: ever description. When thus assorted, the filaments foundv to be of the same size may be combined by throwing to form a single thread "and. otherwise manipulated to put them in condition for the particular use to which the silk is to be put.

My invention is of peculiar value because it makes now available silks which are recognized as being naturally the most lustrous and in certain other respects the best silks known.

Having thus fully described my invention, what-I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is-

The method of assorting silks of different sizes or thicknesses into lots comprising fila- Patented March 13, 1906.

ments all of substantially the same size or thickness which consists in weighing the silk in the filament, and in comparatively short lengths at a time, then separating those lengths of filament having approximately the same weight from the remainder, and then joining those lengths of filaments having approximately the same Weight together to make a single thread thereof, substantially as described. .In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my handthis 1st day of February, 1905.

WM. D. BELL. 

